


Can´t Lay These Ghosts To Rest

by Noducksinpond



Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: Angst, Canon Divergent, Character death technically, F/M, Injustice: Gods Among Us Universe, Spoilers until the end of Injustice Year 3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-18
Updated: 2016-01-18
Packaged: 2018-05-14 19:08:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5754841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Noducksinpond/pseuds/Noducksinpond
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Even if it felt like everything was spinning inside her head, and she most of all wanted to hug him really tightly, and never let him out of her sight again. That seemed like a pretty solid plan." // A ghost comes to visit Barbara Gordon</p>
            </blockquote>





	Can´t Lay These Ghosts To Rest

**Author's Note:**

> No Injustice: Gods Among Us canon applies here post year 3, however there is massive spoilers for the first 3 years of the comic in here. Hope you enjoy.

”Hey Babs.”

Barbara instantly stilled, her hand freezing on her keyboard. She should have known, of course. She should have known he would show up here eventually. But hearing him say those two words rock her to her core, even if they´re words she´s heard a thousand times before from his mouth. When he´d shown up at her window in his stupid little pixie boots to bring her along for patrol, so they could roam the streets of Gotham as Batgirl and Robin. When he´d shown up later, coming back from Blüdhaven to see her, occasionally actually take her on a date, and she´d been so happy to see him. So it´s not the fact, that they shock her because it´s not something he would say, those two words shock her because she never thought she´d hear them again. “Hey ghost wonder,” she replied, trying for teasing and not sure if she succeeded.

“Bruce?” he asked, as she twisted the wheelchair around towards him. He looked light blue and incredibly pale, and Barbara knew it wasn´t just the minimum lighting by her computers. She swallowed hard, trying to seem as together as she could. She knew Dick well enough to know, that he´d beat himself up over it, if he thought he´d upset her unnecessarily. Barbara guessed, he already knew the answer to his question, but she nodded anyway. Her eyes flickered to the floor, he was hovering, should have figured he would be. “I missed you,” he said sadly and with a heavy breath.

“I missed you too,” Barbara replied with a small mournful smile, wheeling her chair a little closer to him, once again doing her best to seem somewhat in control of her emotions. Even if it felt like everything was spinning inside her head, and she most of all wanted to hug him really tightly, and never let him out of her sight again. That seemed like a pretty solid plan.

“You were at war, Barbara. I doubt you had much time to miss me,” he said quietly. He didn´t sound bitter or angry or even upset about that, he sounded like he genuinely expected her to put the war with Superman, above anything she had lost. She had, because it was what she did. She kept on fighting. But the whole time there had been this quiet pain, the pain of first losing Dick, then her dad, and then Dinah. She had kept it quiet, because crying and screaming wasn´t helping anybody. But it felt like she hadn´t smiled a genuine smile since before this whole mess had started. She couldn´t lose anybody else, and yet she knew she was going to lose more.

“I did miss-“ Barbara began, reaching out to touch his arm, her hand touching nothing. She could have went through his arm, if she´d kept moving. She stilled for a moment, and bit down hard on her bottom lip. Not crying. Obviously, not crying. She avoided his look. He could tell she was upset. Of course, he could tell. He was probably wondering, if he should have even shown up. “Right. Should have known. Makes sense.”

“Babs-“ Dick started with a small sad sigh. She hated that tone, it was the same tone, he used every time they argued about something, and he realized, he´d screwed up in some kind of way.

“Save it okay?” Barbara cut him off sharply, a lump in her throat. She clenched her fists tightly, and let out a long shuddering breath. Dick reached out and brushed a hand against her cheek. It reminded Barbara of anybody touching her legs. She knew, he was doing it, but she couldn´t feel it. She was never going to feel it, and her vision was suddenly blurring slightly at the edges. _Crying isn´t going to help anybody._

“I wish I could touch you,” he said quietly, and that confirmed to her, that he couldn´t feel this either. That whatever they used to have was gone, again. He might technically have come back, but they weren’t getting anything back, they´d had before. They had figured out how to make the best of what they had before, but Barbara wasn´t sure how to do it now. There was also a very minimal chance, he´d stick around. They hadn´t beaten Superman, and as long as Bruce was fighting a war, Dick would be right behind him.

“I wish you were alive,” she bit back, and Dick laughed with a small sob. She knew how to make sense of the two of them, if he was alive, if things were like they were before Bruce went to war with Superman. Back then, they´d made sense. He was crying, she could see the tears running down his cheeks. It was almost funny, ghosts shouldn´t be able to cry, they were dead. He couldn´t even touch her, and here he was crying. Barbara would have laughed, if she hadn´t been crying herself. It wasn´t fair, but then again it had been a while, since Barbara had truly believed the universe was built to be fair.

“Guess none of us is getting what we want, Babs,” he said with a small sad smile. They never seemed to do.

“Guess we aren´t,” she mumbled under her breath, reaching up to wipe away her own tears. She swallowed a lump in her throat. She didn´t know what else to say to him. There was a lot of things, she could say. But they all felt pointless. Dick was still a ghost. He was still dead. Barbara couldn´t change that, and she knew it. She had always hated things, she couldn´t help. She´d helped keep crime down in Gotham as Batgirl, she had pulled herself up after what happened when she was shot. She´d been able to help other places than Gotham, as she took on the name of Oracle. Barbara wasn´t good at just sitting back and giving up. But this wasn´t about her, this was about Dick, and the fact that he was unmistakably still dead. “The last Deadman faded away,” she said meeting his eyes.

“I know,” he said solemnly. Barbara had known he knew, of course. According to Bruce, the last Deadman had picked Dick to take over. Fighting against Superman had drained him so much, Deadman couldn´t go on anymore, without a new dead soul. That could happen to Dick too. She fidgeted with her hands, seemingly nervous, even though she didn´t look away from his eyes for a single second. He swallowed hard, almost like her gaze weighed down on him. “I won´t-“

“Boy wonder,” she said her tone almost a little chastising. He was making promises, he couldn´t keep again. It was one of her least favourite things about him. He grinned widely, smugly.

“Come on, Babs. When have I ever let you down?” Dick retorted, the wide grin still there. He might be deflecting, Barbara certainly wouldn´t rule it out, but there was something so familiar about this. Something that reminded her, of something she thought they´d lost a long time ago. It made Barbara smile too, she couldn´t help it. There had always been something about the way, Dick smiled, that made you want to smile back.

“Where do you want me to start?” Barbara asked, crossing her arms and meeting his eyes with a challenging look.


End file.
